


Tonight We're Immune (Say We're Bulletproof).

by dante_alicheery



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Love Confessions, OT3, canon typical language, post episode 83
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 17:42:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9669290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dante_alicheery/pseuds/dante_alicheery
Summary: She had turned the lights off so Percy could sleep, but, virtue of being a half-elf she supposes, she can see well enough to see the strand of white-gold in her hand. Pike’s offering. The one that cut though the raven-edged darkness and brought her back. She’d found it in her hand when she woke, and again, tucked into her armor while she was undressing, the strands neatly woven together. And she’d remembered Pike’s voice, oddly distorted, cutting through silence. A coolness, pure and clean, cutting through the heat. A light, cutting through the void and giving the universe shape again. “It’s not time yet, Vex. It’s not your time.” A small sob. “Vex, come back please.”--Vex contemplates the offering Pike made to bring her back, and then makes a decision. Her relationship definitely has room for one more.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Basically, I just want both of my favorite half-elves to be in poly relationships and to be happy, goddammit, and after Pike made a sacrifice of her hair (!!!), I couldn't resist. Please enjoy this "night after the Raishan battle" fic filled with awkwardness and angst and the occasional adorable moment. 
> 
> Title taken from "Immune" by Groenland. 
> 
> Thoughts and critiques always welcome.

Percy slips off to sleep easily that night. Well, easily for him. Vex can’t blame him exactly, they did have lots of loud, vigorous “We’re both alive, we’re both alive I can’t believe we’re both alive” sex in various positions, and he must be exhausted. She’s exhausted herself, bone deep with it, and yet she still can’t seem to drift off.

She had turned the lights off so Percy could sleep, but, virtue of being a half-elf she supposes, she can see well enough to see the strand of white-gold in her hand. Pike’s offering. The one that cut though the raven-edged darkness and brought her back. She’d found it in her hand when she woke, and again, tucked into her armor while she was undressing, the strands neatly woven together. And she’d remembered Pike’s voice, oddly distorted, cutting through silence, a feeling of coolness, pure and clean, cutting through the heat. Pike's light, cutting through the void and giving the universe shape again. “It’s not time yet, Vex. It’s not your time.” A small sob. “Vex, come back please.” 

Vex cradles the strand of hair in her hand, one thumb stroking it ideally, her head pillared on her other palm. 

Pike’s hair. The little cleric didn’t have many vices, aside from a healthy love of drink and a good fight like the rest of them, but her hair was definitely one of them. It was long, far longer than was practical, especially for a gnome. A fall of shimmering sun-on-snow, the very tips of it brushing at her ankles. She kept it braided for the most part, up and out of her face. A crown across her forehead, or a spiral at the nape of her neck. She even let Vax do funbuns, every once in a while. For her to part with even a bit of it...?

Vex strokes down the length of it one last time, then looks over at Percy.

He’s lying on his side, facing her. His spectacles are off, folded neatly on his bedside table, and even in sleep there’s a little wrinkle in between his eyebrows, like he’s still thinking Terrible Thoughts even while unconscious. He's peaceful though, for him. No ,. 

She smiles wistfully, bends to kiss him on his forehead, which makes him sigh and that wrinkle vanish into the Abyss from whence it came. Then, she eases herself out of bed. Out of their bed. Trinket makes a low noise when she reached the door, but a pat on the head and a scratch behind his ears sends him right back to sleep.

There’s still a soft glow coming from underneath Pike’s door when she finally got there, padding over as quietly as she can.

But she pauses there, on the threshold, doubts nipping at her heels. What if she’s wrong? What if she’d completely misread Pike? She holds that fear inside of her for a long moment, letting herself acknowledge it, and then knocks on the door anyway. There was only one way to find out. 

It only took a moment for the sound of small feet heading toward the door to make her lean in. They pause outside the door for but a moment more, before the door swung inward, revealing Pike, all dressed for bed, well, undressed for bed, save for one of Scanlan’s opulent dressing gowns. 

It’s rumpled, like she’d been wearing it all night rather than trying to sleep, and her hair is down for the first time Vex had seen in a very long time. It flowed down her back save for one small portion, the blunted strands framing her face perfectly. The cut was uneven, a sort of upward-sweeping diagonal from cutting it with a knife. Vex thought for a moment of sweeping it back behind the gnome’s small, pointed ear.

Pike blinks up, her forehead creasing in confusion. “Vex? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” she replies, smiling down at her. “I just… I had a thought. And I wanted to talk to you about it. Is that alright?”

Pike steps back and aside, letting Vex inside her room. It's an opulent one, and far larger than the one Vex and Percy were sharing. A four-poster bed took up a good half of it, faux windows along the far wall simulating moonlight streaming in. Rose petals sighed underneath each step, eternally fresh and fragrant.

“Well, I can see Scanlan spared no expense,” Vex quips.

Pike laughed, and jumped up on the thick mattress, sliding a little on the crimson silk. “It’s easy to go all out when it’s not real.”

“You’d think. But you should see my room,” Vex replied with a roll of her eyes. “Bear motifs everywhere. And I know he did that fur rug just to annoy Trinket. Joke's on him though, Trinket loves damn the thing. Won’t sleep anywhere else.”

There was a small pause, barely a breath. Vex refused to call it awkward. “So about today.”

“You died,” Pike replies bluntly, seeming to zero in on exactly Vex's meaning. “You and Scanlan.”

“Err. Right. And I wanted to thank you. For bring us back. For bringing _me_ back.”

“Vex,” Pike slid a little closer to her, concern on her face. Her small hand occupies the small space between them, and Pike shifts her weight to it so she can peer up at her friend's face. “You know I’ll always bring you back. Always.”

Vex is surprised to find herself blinking back tears, but there they are, threatening to spill over into sobs. She pushes back the existential dread—it’s not why she’s here, it’s not. So she bites her lip, swallows back the fear, and when she was sure it wasn’t going to come out all pathetic, whispers, “I know.” 

“But still,” Pike shoulder checks her, forcing a little good will into her voice. “You have to be more careful. We can’t lose you, Vex. You’re too important.”

“Oh, Pike.” And Vex enfolds the gnome in a tight hug.

“Percy especially," she whispers, and Vex feels a small shiver of... shame? Empathy? slide down her stomach. 

She let's Pike go, not noting the flush on Pike's cheeks, reaching all the way up to the tips of her pointed ears. “Pike, that’s actually part of what I—”

“I never congratulated you two, did I?” Pike interrupts, her voice racing octaves, her blush deepening. Vex notices it now, and the cold in her gut leans decidedly towards guilt. “You and Percy. Finally, getting together after all that pining. I mean, you two haven’t really announced anything—I had to hear it from Keyleth you know—but I mean, it’s kind of obvious now, isn't it, the way you were cozying together in the Fire Plane, and after the battle, after you…” she swallows, her eyes darting away, then back up, a too-wide smile straining, “anyway, I’m really glad for you. For both of you. If anyone deserves happiness...”

“Pike,” Vex says softly, and the gnome lapses into silence. “Look at me.” 

And Pike looks up, seeming so, so small. The thing with Pike is that one usually didn't realize how physically short she was. Her presence was so large, the way she absolutely lit up a room, filling it with her warmth and laughter, that she always appeared to be so much taller than she was. Now, though, Vex thought. She seemed… wilted. “I’m usually more observant than this,” she admits. “I’m sorry I didn’t see it.”

“Didn’t see what?”

“That you love him,” Vex prods. Pike opens her mouth to protest—“Don’t lie to me.” Pike shuts her mouth. “I should have realized. You gave him your necklace, and yet you avoid him like the plague. Oh, it’s subtle. You’re not leaving every room he enters, but you never seek him out like you do Grog, or Vax, or Keyleth, or even Scanlan. That’s love-and-not-letting-yourself-have if I’ve ever seen it. And I know it better than most.”

Pike shuts her eyes a half moment too long, and if her blue eyes shimmered with tears, she held them back remarkably well. “Vex.”

Vex felt like trembling; that same fear that she had misread the situation, because how could that possibly be true, when Vex was who she was, when blood stained her hands and she was broken enough for an ancient, foul Archfey to take an interest in. She inhaled, and held it for a moment. She can't flee, not now. Not when Pike. When she…

“I’m just hoping,” Vex goes on, drawing out the lock of hair from her robe pocket. It shimmers like palest gold in the candlelight. “That, perhaps… that you might love me. Too.”

Pike stares.

Vex lets her gaze fall to the lock of hair, twining it between her fingers. “You brought me back with a lock of your hair. And that’s. That’s an intimate offering, is all. Almost as intimate as offering your faith.” She waits a moment, trying to swallow the flittering panic, but it was suddenly in her mouth, escaping in words—“though of course I understand if you don’t, darling. If I’ve completely misread the situation, well, I can talk to Percy, we can make this work. I know he loves you too. I know he does.” Who wouldn’t love Pike? “And we can—”

And then Pike leans in, gathering herself to her knees, using Vex’s robe as leverage, until they were eye to eye. The glimmering of tears had evaporated, and she was smiling. “Vex?"

"Yes, Pike?" 

"Sometimes, you talk too much.” She leans in and kisses Vex, sweetly, chastely, and just when Vex manages to get over her surprise, her body's rigidity melting away, Pike leaned back. Vex chases her a moment, wanting to continue, but holds herself back to study the gnome’s face. 

“Does that mean…?”

“It took me a while, to realize. I wasn’t just jealous of you, Vex. I was jealous of both of you. I,” she pauses, small hands fisting in the silk of Vex's robe, “It’s difficult to put into words, but..." She shrugs. “Yeah. Yes, I think I do. But don’t think you have to if you don’t—”

“I do, Pike. Of course I do. You’re brilliant and wonderful and gorgeous. I just didn’t want to overstep. You got enough of that shit from Scanlan. And the last thing I ever want to do is make you uncomfortable.”

Pike laughs. “Well, I hope you haven’t put me too high on a pedestal to fuck me.”

Vex stares at her a moment, then joined her laughing. “Oh, darling. I’ve got a flying broom. You’re never too high that I can’t reach you.”

It was a lovely thought, it really was, but... but at that genuine sincerity in Vex’s voice, Pike feels her bravado waver. “You’d really want to?”

“Want to what, dear? Give you a ride on my broom?”

Pike swallows around the dryness in her mouth, and makes herself keep looking up, watching as Vex’s expression goes from suggestive to puzzled. “You’d really want to fuck me.”

“I’d be happy to take you here and now to prove it, your knees around my ears and everything,” Vex replies, her lips curling into an almost predatory smile. Pike feels her heart jump into her throat. “Show you just how wanted you are. But I think this is one instance where talk should come before action. To whit—we have one more angle of our little threesome to inform.”

Pike’s heart jumps higher, high enough that she could taste it on her tongue. “ Can't that wait until morning?”

Vex slides off of the bed. “No time like the present yeah?”

“Vex, please!” Vex stops. “What if he doesn’t want me, Vex. What if he doesn’t want me like I want him.”

Vex opens her mouth to tell her how silly that was. Didn’t Pike know how much everyone loved her? But. She shuts her mouth. Loving her and being in love with her were two separate things. She knows that. Loving her and being able to see her as more than just Pike, the gnome cleric who could hold her liquor better than any of them, who dove into battle with a gleam in her eyes… 

Vex folds her knees, balancing on her toes so she can look Pike in the eye. “Then he’s a fool. But I think you know Percival de Rolo is not a fool.”

Pike smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “True, true. But what if—”

“If he doesn’t love you—if he’s not in love with you— then,” she leans in and kisses Pike, hard and not at all chaste and with quite a bit of tongue. She doesn’t let go for several moments, until they’re both breathless, Vex’s hand on Pike’s cheek, and Pike with both her hands in Vex’s half-bound hair. Pike chases her half an inch before settling back on her knees, her face bright red.

Vex’s eyes glow with wickedness, and her smile warms Pike all the way down to her toes. “Then Percival de Rolo is going to need to learn how to share.”

“Okay,” Pike hears herself say, then repeats it for emphasis. “Okay.”

Vex pats Pike’s cheek one last time, leans in for a quick kiss, and then twists on the balls of her feet to stand. Pike can only watch as she lengthens like a spyglass, then, shooting her one last wicked grin, goes to open the door. She holds it then, bowing with a flourish like one of the ghostly servants, waiting for Pike to walk through.

They make it down the hall in record time, though neither rushed onward. Neither wants to leave the other one behind. But soon enough the they were at Vex’s door, and she was opening the door, her eyes on Pike the entire time.

She was anxious, which is understandable, of course. Vex had been much the same in the forest, had felt the same tremble outside Pike’s room. “Are you ready?” she asks softly.

“No time like the present!” her smile is a little forced, but she strides into the room—their room. Vex hangs back until she’d reached the merely monarch-sized bed, then slips in and shut the door behind them. 

The bed is only slightly smaller than the one in Pike’s room, emperor-sized rather than orgy-sized, and covered in navy blue sheets that seem to reflect the faux-moonlight streaming in from the illusion of windows. Percy is curled up in them, bundled in the furs and comforters, his back to them, and Pike feels the nerves start to crest again in the pit of her stomach. 

Vex slips across the room, whisker silent, and even though Pike is only in her dressing gown, she feels like an avalanche in comparison. 

Percy doesn’t wake, though, not until they’ve both clambered onto the bed and Vex shakes his shoulder. And still, he doesn’t rouse until Vex hisses his name. 

“Vex, what?” And then his eyes fell on Pike’s blanched face, her burning eyes. He roused himself a little quicker, pushing himself to sitting with one hand. “Is everything alright?”

“Everything’s fine. Pike is just going to be with us, now. If that’s alright with you.”

Percy relaxed, and then frowned. “Um, alright. Pike is welcome, of course,” he shot her a quick smile. “But… be with us how?”

Vex exhales, casts Pike a rueful smile. “As much as I’d just like to say, ‘we’ll talk after’ I have a feeling that might not be the most productive choice.” She purses her lips, trying to find the words. Pike pats her hand, and looked to the still-bleary Percy, who had found his spectacles, and was looking between them now with frank curiosity. 

“I’ve been holding this in for so long,” Pike says softly, looking first at Vex, then to Percy. “Running over and over again in my head every scene and scenario. You’d think I’d have figured out how to say it by now but…” Vex’s hand finds hers, and she squeezes it back. “All I can think to say is, I like you, Percy. I love—I’m in love with you.”

Percy blinks. He swallows. “Ah.”

She immediately feels the crash of disappointment she was so afraid of, feels like drowning in it, but before she can backpedal, or play it off, or say it doesn’t have to mean anything, Vex is snapping at him, her eyebrows drawn together, frown tight as her bowstring. “Ah? Pike pours her heart out to you and, all you can say is—”

“That’s not what I meant,” Percy says immediately, and even in the wan light, there’s some color on his cheeks. “Not at all, just. Ah, as in, yes, that makes sense. I should have seen it before. Perhaps I even suspected, after that night in the tavern. Pelor, forgive me, Pike. I’m usually more observant than this.”

“Aren’t we all.” 

Pike looks at Percy through her lashes, refuses to let tears fall.

“So I suppose I cannot fault you, then,” Percy says as he shifts back the covers and inches forward. He takes one of Pike’s small hands in his, strokes the top of her palm with a rough thumbs. “For not seeing how much I ardently love and admire you.”

Pike starts, then laughs, her button nose wrinkling. “That’s from one of the books on the list—what was it, ‘Dignity and Discrimination?’”

Percy smiles then, eyes snapping with mirth. “You did read them.”

“Eventually,” Pike admitted. “I didn’t get through all of them.”

“Well, you’ll have plenty of time.” He bent down to kiss her on the crown of her head, then leaned in further so he could whisper into the shell of her ear. “Really, Pike. Do you think I give book recommendations to just anyone.”

“He certainly doesn’t to me.” 

They both looked up at Vex, who had reclined among the pillows, watching them with the biggest grin. 

“I didn’t realize you—”

“Relax, Percival. We both know I have very… specific tastes in literature.”

“She likes the naughty books,” Pike explains, as if it wasn’t evident from the half-elf’s suggestive leer.

“Yes, well. I’m sure I could find something for you in the library.”

“Not tonight, dear. We have to celebrate our first evening as a thruple. I’m thinking cuddling and then another ridiculous Whitestone breakfast before we enjoy each other and—”

“Thruple? Is that the technical term?”

“Quiet, you.” Vex shoves a pillow into Percy’s face, shoving him backwards, then shot a look over to Pike. “Are you sure you’re in love with him? He can be an insufferable git, you know.”

“Well, then he’s in good company.” 

Vex’s nose wrinkles, and she reaches back and chucks a pillow at Pike as well. The round, decorative cushion sails over the gnome’s head. Pike grabs one next to her—one of those ridiculous cylinder shaped ones with the tassels that she couldn’t see anyone actually owning—and chucks it at Vex, who takes it in the shoulder. 

Percy comes out of nowhere with one of the large fluffy ones, and leaps onto Vex with it, pinning her by her shoulders to the mattress. She fails theatrically, whining but gives up easily when Pike came, adding her weight to it. Still, they didn’t let her up until she tapped the mattress for mercy. 

“Whatever am I going to do with the two of you?” she asks, when they’d removed the pillowand let her back up. She glares over at Percy, but she couldn’t hold it when looking at Pike; she just dissolves into laughter, throwing her head back onto the mountain of pillows behind her. 

“Love us forever?” Pike suggests, snuggling in next to her. Percy slips in on Pike’s other side, dropping another kiss on her forehead. 

“I think that’s something I might be able to manage.” Vex murmurs, kissing Pike on the cheek and curling up into her like a cat.

Pike rolls over onto her side, so Vex is to her back and Percy is facing her. Percy had removed his spectacles again and he stretches out now, his gangly limbs taking up half the bed. His breathing slows, and she watches as the wrinkles smooth out on his forehead. Before he falls away completely, she whispers at him, wakes him up. “Percy.”

He opens a bleary eye. “Yes, Pike?”

She inhales, decides to go for it. “You’re not just doing this because…” she nudges in the direction of Vex behind her.

“I understand how you could think that. Vex’ahlia can be incredibly convincing. But no,” he leans in just enough that he could kiss her full on the mouth this time, long and sweet, one that warms Pike all the way down to her toes. “No, it’s not just because of her. I do love you, Pike Trickfoot. And we’re going to convince you of it one way or another. Promise”

She nods, unable to speak, and waits as Percy’s eyes close, and his breath to even out. She shifts between the two of them, until she’s on her back, and lets her eyes trace the light of the fake moon on the ceiling, slowly being drowned out by the first blush of an unreal sun. Percy and Vex are warm at her sides. And it’s easy to fall into that warmth, to bask in it, but she can’t ignore the small tremor of trepidation in the pit of her stomach. But for now… for now, she closes her eyes, and lets the sound of her breathing mingle with theirs.


End file.
